It's the end of the academic year. Before long, most of us will be turning in our final papers and standing up after finishing our last exams. Some will be returning for another year of study, while others will be continuing on to the next phase of their lives. Whatever we will be doing next fall, we will be doing it in a world that is vastly different from the one that most of us knew just a few years ago.
It seems that over the past five years, the world has grown more embattled and conflicted. Violent conflicts have sprung up in new places across the globe: Mali and other regions of Africa, the Korean peninsula and Syria are all still hotbeds of tension and violence. Political suppression has become much more frequent in Egypt and other Middle Eastern nations that were once a source of hope arising from the Arab Spring. Further, gang violence in northern Mexico has been steadily bleeding across the border into Southwestern states, resulting in large-scale crime and death both among Mexican and American populations.
Politics has become increasingly partisan and divided as the factions in government have failed to seek out common ground. Due to heightened levels of polarization both here and worldwide, we are unable to peacefully discuss our differences without our conversations erupting in some form of outrage or attack. Rather than focusing on coming together to resolve larger systemic issues faced by the United States, politicians jump between a number of less overarching (though arguably still important) social issues such as gun control, gay marriage and the drug war. As a result, we are still suffering from the same abysmal job market and economy, and there is little hope in sight for a better future.
And as if we needed any further reminders of the conflicts present in the world today, the Boston bombing reminded us that at any time, there are those among us who would live out their political or religious issues by taking lives. These accumulated issues may seem hopeless or overwhelming. However, these shouldn't merely be a cause for despair for all of us as we go forward into next year. It can also be a sign of hope.
One of President Obama's most popular campaign phrases was his assertion that "We are the ones we've been waiting for." It was a call designed to inspire his allies to action, pushing them to increase their support for his candidacy and his agenda. Through their collective efforts, his programs of reform and transformation would easily take root in the Oval Office.
While it is easy for us to always look toward the next big or popular leader for answers, no one political figure will be able to achieve world peace single handed: President Obama stands as evidence of that reality, despite marketing himself as the candidate of "hope and change." Nor can we merely rely on the collective will of society, for as we've seen hundreds of times throughout history, the collective can be manipulated into both complacency and unspeakable evil.
If we merely rely on our leaders or our collective to improve society, we will be continually trapped in the same negative situations. In order to truly reform society from its most basic levels, individual actors must be relied upon to do the right thing.
The individual ability to choose good from evil and pursue it is part of what defines our humanity, and it is also one of the most powerful tools that we have to combat the litany of problems we face as a society. While those of us who are still in a university setting may feel hopeless to act on our own, it is that exact ability to act on our own which gives us the best opportunity to improve our world.
By actively considering and choosing a better path in the world - whether it be resisting the urge to polarize one's self politically by practicing peaceful dialogue, or supporting those around you who are struggling, or pursuing a just cause, or any of the other infinite possibilities - we as individuals are able to shape and improve our immediate lives and surroundings. And as others do the same, we slowly influence and better the world around us through an ever-increasing accumulation of goodness.
Choosing to do good isn't always easy or straightforward, but it is one of the things that we as individuals, regardless of our place in life, are always able to do. So as we look to the next year or next phase of life, I would encourage us all, no matter where we are or what we are doing, to do good.
David Giffin is a second-year Masters in Theological Studies student at the Candler School of Theology from Charleston, Ill.
Cartoon by Katrina Worsham
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